Mio Italiano (First of the Soul Sharers duology)
by Marinne
Summary: (Rated T for swearing) Somewhere in Central America, there's a clan of people who believe in and can talk with the spirits. In this generation, that's to say Teva. She wasn't really an adventurous girl; really, she had just been hoping for her Soul Sharer to sweep in so that the two of them could live a nice romance story. Unfortunately for her, that isn't how Romano does things.
1. Prologue: Appeasing Curiosity

_**DISCLAIMER: This is a fanfiction, so naturally I own nothing save the storyline and all the people with the ridiculously weird names (they're my lovely OCs).**_

_**So, I've had this idea in my head for a while, and I've finally decided to write it down. I don't know if anyone'll bother to read this story, but that sure as heck won't keep me from writing - I've actually got a plot this time! Well, at least I'll be able to say I tried. Anyway, if you do feel interested in reading this humble fanfic, then I shan't keep you any longer! :)**_

_**- Marinne**_

"But Nakka; I still don't understand what a Soul Sharer is!" Teva exclaimed, her young face creasing up into a severely confused expression.

The wind be heard singing outside of the tree house which Old Mother Nakka inhabited. She was a short woman, fragile in appearance and the palest out of the entire clan - although, perhaps that was because she was usually always cooped up in here. Her hair was black, with one single streak of vibrant white that she wore proudly; as it represented wisdom. Nakka's eyes were a dark mix of the golden jewelry women were so accustomed to wearing and the brown of the barks of the dense jungle's trees. Her face was weathered with age, but the strong dark colour of her skin was still prominent above all else. In all truth, they all looked pretty alike in the clan; dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin.

Except for Teva.

She was the same in hair and skin tone, but her eyes were the beautiful and rich silver that her kind was so well known for. Nakka's eyes had been silver too, until Teva was born. After all, the spirits only wished to talk to one person at a time. Before, and for many years, it had been Nakka; now, and likewise for as many years to come, it was her.

Nakka smiled at her. She knew it would be far too difficult to explain this to the little girl, she was far too young still; she herself hadn't been told about Soul Sharers until the age of thirteen, that was the way things worked around here. But Teva had gotten very insistent. Who would think that a small little seven year old would care so much about whom her soul-mate was to be? That was where Teva and Nakka and all the other Spirit Speakers differed from the ordinary people in the clan; they could actually learn who other's Soul Sharer was meant to be, just never their own. Nakka said that the spirits were playful, and didn't like any cheating of their will.

"It doesn't surprise me, Teva. You're still a young girl, you will understand it with time." Obviously, Nakka was about to call today's tutelage time to a close. There was no way Teva was going to let the subject die. For a child, she was very curious, and very stubborn to match. "No Nakka! Just explain it one more time. Just once, and I'll leave to try and spin the silly shawl with Mother." She promised seriously. Oh, how she hated spinning. Most women of the clan found it calming and a useful way to build the patience of their children - as much boys as girls -. Teva had long ago decided that it was just one more of their twisted ways of keeping the young occupied.

Nakka sensed what she was thinking - or, rather, she probably guessed it from the evident grimace upon the child's face - and laughed, though not exactly unkindly. Teva didn't understand why though. It was a very not-funny matter. Spinning was awful - Nakka had even admitted it herself, Teva remembered that well enough.

"Alright, Teva. Just one more time, and then you run along to do whatever it is that your mother wants you to do. Remember, it is very important to keep a mother happy; because she is the one in control of how much spinning you have to do." Nakka's dark eyes twinkled with amusement, and Teva just pressed her lips together tightly in a silent scowl. The woman before her stood up, grabbing some of the black shiny powder and sprinkling a little bit over the hearth at the back of her treehouse. Obediently, Teva crawled over and knelt down next to her, sitting back on her feet.

"Listen, Teva, a Soul Sharer is the person that you are destined to meet and spend your life with. It's a soul-mate; a true and real love. You won't feel comfortable with anyone else. Here, we have the Sun Festival, in which Soul Sharers will finally meet."

Seeing that she wasn't quite following, Nakka slowed down a little, her eyes fixed firmly on the smoke couple before her. In Teva's eyes, the figures weren't very clear, and as they were made of nothing more than bleary smoke, she couldn't see any distinguishable features at all.

"You will be stronger when you are with this person - just the presence will do, although you will have to acknowledge them as your Soul Sharer first. It's a very strong bond, Teva, stronger than iron, stronger than stone, stronger than death."

"But Nakka, nothing is stronger than death!" Teva called out disbelievingly.

All of this was starting to sound like a big little made up story to appease her curiosity. Surely nothing could be stronger than death. It was simply impossible. Even she, in her young and inexperienced mind, knew that much.

Nakka smiled gently again, knowingly. Her slim, dark hand reached out and ruffled Teva's black hair affectionately. "This bond is stronger than anything, Teva. You and your Soul Sharer won't meet at a Sun Festival, you know. He will be a white man -"

"A white man? But that's impossible!" "You are beginning to sound like your mother, Teva. Nothing is impossible, not when it regards a Spirit Speaker. Anyway, I cannot tell you more about him, but let me tell you that he will be someone that you will find...bizarre, at best. Now, off to spin you go, I don't want your mother on my poor old back again for keeping you here so long. Shoo!"

With that, the smoke was put out, and before she knew it, Teva was walking down the mountain; climbing and jumping from tree to tree; crossing and splashing along the clear streams before arriving back in the main village of the clan, all those tents put up, with the washing lines for the clothes to dry zigzagging this way and that.

Yet, even as she endured her mother's sermon and she was set with the task of spinning until sundown, her mind was elsewhere. With thoughts of a white man, different to all she had ever known, to be precise.


	2. Chapter 1: Late Arrivals

_**Second chapter already~ I'm so happy that I've managed to get everything dolled up, now it's just for writing the chapters. I reckon that I should probably get an update up every weekend. Hopefully. : )**_

_**A shout out to my awesome new beta reader,**____**Wednesday101, who is also my first reviewer. Thumbs up!**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I own Hetalia. All of it. Believable? Not really, huh? Oh alright then. I don't own it, just this humble storyline and the characters that sound weird. Yeah, those are mine alright. **_

_**Okie dokie, on with the chapter, then.**_

_**- Marinne.**_

Teva opened her eyes.

The sun had just come up, it was time to get going. Time with Nakka was rare enough as it was, keeping her waiting would just be adding onto the unpleasant situation. Even though most had thought it to be impossible, she had gotten even older over the last ten years, and not just in appearance. It had finally come to the point that she was too old to come down from her tree house—much to her constant disgruntlement—and was too tired to put up with the sound of Teva's voice for too long.

Still, she was anxious to talk to her mentor; this was the reason why she had returned so soon. Up until yesterday, Teva had been sailing, as was customary for a Spirit Speaker to do once a year. It didn't usually last long, just a week in solitude speaking to the spirits and fending for oneself in a place as plain as the sea. There had still been two days to go, but the spirits had excused her from them, telling her to be home immediately and talk to Nakka as soon as she could because it was time. Teva didn't know why it was now all of a sudden, after all those years, but that didn't matter too much now.

She had arrived late into the previous night, and her mother had told her to wait until morning before going to see Nakka. Well, now was morning; so that was exactly what she was going to do.

Pushing the deerskin blanket off of herself, Teva hopped to her feet. Her legs felt a littleweak from the sudden and brusque movement, but she didn't really care; the anticipation building up in her belly masked anything and everything else. Not many people got up at dawn—her mother, for example—but she put faith in the spirits that Nakka would be awake and waiting for her.

The scenery was beautiful outside of the tent. The golden sun had tinted the sky pink, purple and green, the rays bathing everything in a precious light. Just the sight of it brought a smile to Teva's lips, as it had done many times. Her world was beautiful. Jungle and sky were both at peace, the hubbub still quite quiet, the bustling of daily activity not started yet It didn't take long to make her way to the thick tree upon which Nakka's tree house was built, lost to the eye amongst the vivid foliage. Grabbing the spindly rope ladder, she was quick and agile in climbing her way to the top as she had done this so many times before over the years. Just as she had hoped, the smell of a crackling fire greeted her nostrils, paired with the thousands of spices that Nakka loved to keep around so much.

"Good morning, Teva dear. To what do I owe the pleasure this time?"

Nakka's frail voice called out from inside, and Teva didn't waste time stepping inside to greet her mentor. Nakka was old. So much older than she had ever been before. Her entire head of hair was white, her skin etched with wrinkle upon wrinkle. Time affected her so that she hadn't been a Spirit Speaker for seventeen years. Still, the ever-present mild smile was still as young as ever.

It filled the girl with happiness to see the woman; if she had missed someone at all during the past few days, then it was doubtlessly Nakka. Walking over with a broad smile, Teva took her seat next to Nakka beside the purple fire.

"Oh Nakka! They told me that it was time, he's coming to get me, Nakka!"

Teva had thought about it a lot, and it made her heart flutter to think about that white man that was to be her Soul Sharer. She imagined him with hair as golden as the sun's rays each morning; with eyes as blue as the mid-afternoon sky, and with an easy smile that was as contagious as laughter.

The longing to see him had gotten stronger over the past four years; all of her friends had found their Soul Sharers in prior Sun Festivals, and they would often look at Teva with slightly pity as well as sympathy as she sat alone. For the sake of simplicity she always pretended not to notice these looks.

Nakka's lips curled in a soft smile, the corners of her eyes wrinkling. "Oh Teva, it's wonderful to see you so excited. I wish you the best of luck, but," why must every good thing have a 'but'? Teva didn't understand, nor did she particularly want to, in all fairness. "I don't advise you to be too hasty; though the spirits have said that the time has come, it won't happen today and it may even take some more time."

As much as it annoyed her, Nakka was right, as usual.

Even though she waited all day and was in soaring spirits until nightfall, nothing happened; no golden haired white-man came. Nor did he come the next day, or the next. In all truth, when Teva was starting to honestly believe that she would be waiting for months on end, a ship was finally spotted on the seventh day.

She had been sulking after her latest talk with Nakka—in which she had kept saying that there was nothing left to do but wait, which irritated the silver eyed girl to no end—at the beach, with the sun beginning its descent over the horizon. She was sat on a rock, her feet dangling over the crystalline seawater with nothing but a silly gull to keep her company, when movement in the waters of afar caught her attention.

She looked up, only to be met with the sight of a huge ship. It had billowing white sails, with a red cross painted in its center, and a colourful flag dancing in the wind. She had never seen a proper ship, just the canoes and little boats that her people were good at crafting, and it blew her breath away. There was no way that she would ever forget the sight of it, with the sun in the background and the sea below it.

It was beautiful.

Teva hurriedly scrambled to her feet, her black hair whipping in her face so that she had to fight with it to keep it from her silver eyes. The ship was still very far, an hour's sailing from her position, perhaps, but she could still make out little human figures oddly dressed at the front. If she could see them, they could see her. Upon thinking that, Teva immediately dropped down and stuck with her body close to the ground, eyes glued to the ship in the distance.

What should she do? It was common knowledge that other clans and tribes that had been eradicated by the white men, so they could very possibly be dangerous. She would have to warn everyone, and then Nakka would know what to do.

Without so much as another seconds thought, Teva sprang again to her feet and dove back into the cover of the jungle; sprinting, jumping, climbing—hurrying back to the village.

"They're here! They're here!"

She yelled out as she arrived, drawing the people out from within their tents to look at her with confusion. There wasn't a single soul here who didn't know what she meant, yet they had all managed to convince themselves that this wouldn't be happening for a long time.

Whispers broke out amongst the people, and children held onto their parents with uncertainty. The chief of the clan—Wirggun, a tall middle aged man with a gruff voice and a strong build—came out almost at once, his wife Etereah following close behind with a creased brow.

"Send for Nakka; we'll need her advice," Wirggun barked at his three children. All of them were older than Teva, and of similar, strong builds to their mother and father. Two of them headed off straight away, whilst the last one told her parents that they would need even more help, since moving Nakka was a delicate task.

Teva considered helping out with the task, but Etereah simply called to the two nearest kinsmen and the three set off with Hallanah to fetch Nakka from her tree house.

"Teva!" Wirggun called, striding over to her with meaningful, swift strides. Instantly, the entire clan seemed to be closing in on them, perhaps to hear Teva speak. It was pretty intimidating. "What did you see?" He asked briskly.

The chief wanted to know facts, not details.

Mainly, Teva knew that he wanted to know whether he would need to call everyone to get into their battle gear or not.

"It was a massive ship, still far out in the ocean, but they should be arriving within the next hour. They had white sails, with a red cross."

Unlike many of the other young ones of the clan, including Teva, Wirggun had encountered white men before. He knew that the red cross hardly ever brought any good. His features darkened for a second, face becoming stony.

"We cannot fight them, not in our state!" Etereah whispered fiercely.

Although everyone knew her words to be true, it didn't make anyone any happier about them. The clan had sent warriors to help another clan fight against the invaders, but only a handful returned to tell the tale of their vociferous failure.

These recounts had felt like horror stories; with fire spitting weapons on their ships and huge battle daggers that didn't look like daggers at all. These men had been dressed in iron, making them unbeatable. It had been a massacre.

"No," Wirggun agreed seriously, looking up at the darkening sky. "Fighting will get us nowhere this time." His eyes flew back down to the people gathered, now landing on Teva, alerting her. "Is there any chance of figuring out what they want?"

Although the question was directed at the thin girl it wasn't her voice that answered. "Nothing is impossible for a Spirit Speaker."


End file.
